Iran Resumes Exporting Crude Supplies to India's Essar Company

TEHRAN (FNA)- Chief Executive of the Indian energy company Essar Energy PLC Naresh Nayyar announced that Iran has resumed exports of crude to the Indian refinery after the latter settled its accounts.
"Some payments are being made to Iran. Crude supplies from Iran have been restored," said Nayyar.

A senior Iranian oil official confirmed last week that the country has received the first part of the Indian firms' debt payment, and said Iran has restarted exports of crude to those Indian refineries which have settled their accounts.

"We have started exports of oil to those Indian refineries which have settled their accounts," Manager of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) for International Affairs Seyed Mohsen Qamsarri told FNA.

Qamsarri announced that all Indian refineries have started paying their oil debts to Iran, and added that the country has received more than one million euro of its debts so far.

Iran halted oil supplies to India on August 1 due to continued overdue payments.

Since December, India and Iran have been struggling to find ways for New Delhi to pay for imports of 400,000 barrels per day, 12 percent of its oil demand, after the Reserve Bank of India halted a clearing mechanism under US pressure.

Earlier reports said that Indian refiners such as Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRPL) have opened rupee accounts in the New Delhi branch of Union Bank of India, which will route euro payments to state-owned Turkiye Halk Bankasi (Halkbank) in Istanbul.

Halkbank will then transfer that money to the account of NIOC, sources involved in the process said.

Meantime, Press Trust of India quoted Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as saying that India is making regular payment for Iran crude oil.